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At first, I was a bit disappointed that Dane is no longer conducting business in Sudan. However, in the end it turned out that Carmen and I would most likely not have seen the Emirates at all without his help from the »native« Dubai. At least not according to this scenario.

Can you imagine the kind of person who would advance payment of 1.000 dollars per person for Carmen and I, without even knowing us, so that we could enter the country? The kind of person who tells you that he is in the process of moving out: »only this cupboard and refrigerator are remaining to be put in the trailer, here are the keys, Internet connection is available, you can dry your underwear in the yard, I will just drop by tomorrow to pick up the last of my things«.

Dane finds Slovenia somewhat…unnecessary. What he finds unnecessary are mostly the Slovenian bureaucracy and the smallness he moved away from a couple of years ago to work for the United Nations World Food Programme, where he is responsible for the installation of telecommunications. He was engaged in Darfur, was in guerilla imprisonment in Ethiopia, and was saving Pakistan, but it was sheer luck that he managed to avoid a missile so we could drive to the desert east of Dubai on New Year's Eve. The missile flew in through the window of the UN office in Iraq, was stopped by the wall crossing its path obliquely, slid down the wall and fell on the floor without triggering.

Dane with Goranka, Carmen and Tilen, Fadi, Lebanese, with Sophie, Belgian, then Martin, Swedish, with Ulrika, and the Croats Goran and Liljana represented a convoy of Landcruisers and Fadi's Defender; We were joined later on, after a considerable digging in the sand, in the so-called »Area 53«, by Majid from Sudan. Anything and everything: despite the language of conversation being English, too much of our Slovenian and Croatian was heard, and not only from Dane's loudspeakers transmitting into the international Emirati sky everything from Gibonni, Đorđe and Emir to »Hej Slaveni« (Hey, Slavs, the old Yugoslavian anthem), also in disco and hip-hop versions.

Well, actually, the latter is made up. But it sounds fun! I have heard that the evening ended quite late for Dane; supposedly, he was caught up in team spirit with those of you who were toasting three hours after us. However, the morning was not yet showing its teeth. But we did, as a way of greeting the desert: »Good morning, good afternoon, good year.« It was nice. True, I was not allowed to drive »my crib« into the sand (after what I've seen, thank you, Dane, for not allowing it), could not ride my motorcycle (here comes the moment when the camera zooms in on the face and a small teardrop appears in the corner of the eye), but at least we got our Landcruisers and Defender to wrestle with the sand dunes. Yupeeeeeeee!!! That was fun!

Thanks, guys, for the invitation and hospitality! Martin, thank you for dropping your comment! Dane and Goranka, thank you both from the bottom of my heart for the Emirates. Good luck!

Translated from Slovenian by the Alkemist Translation Agency

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